ANNOUNCING POLITERATURE!

Shelley Ettinger and I have begun a conversation about politics and literature at a site called Politerature.
There are book reviews (mostly of novels) and also dialogues between
the two of us. Here's part of the "About Politerature:"

Politerature is an idea that begins
with the assertion that politically informed literature can be of the
highest quality. We believe that there are excellent books—some of
them popular, others less well-known, some written in English, many
originating in other languages—that express and embody political
ideas. We believe that raising consciousness about racism or
colonialism or women’s and LGBTQ oppression, about war and
intervention, about class and unions, is a worthy task for fiction.
We intend to pay attention to the books that take on this task.

The crux of what we are seeking is to
honor and develop a kind of literature that runs counter to the
conventional wisdom that true art cannot be political. On the
contrary, we believe that many books at all points on the ideological
spectrum– including those we find abhorrent and those that insist they
have no ideology– are, in fact, political. Our focus will be
literature that is politically progressive and leftist: this is what
we call Politerature. We are seeking books that rise to the heights of
complexity in story, language, character, and political experiences
and ideas. In cases where such books don’t reach the heights, we
applaud the effort.

Finally, we assert that political
fiction can open minds, inform, give insight, inspire, strengthen, and
arm. We need these things. Can books change the world? That’s one of
the questions to be addressed here. We already know that we love
books and we want to change the world. Those passions converge in
Politerature.....

I've had a busy couple of months getting the Politerature website/blog off to a start with Shelley Ettinger (and we are getting a lot of suggestions of politically progressive novels (including "Backchannel Contributor" below). I've also been preparing two old books for republication, my first novel, A Space Apart as an e-book and—coming soon—Blazing Pencils,
a reprint of a book for young writers about writing fiction and
personal essays. Getting books back into print and into digital format
seems increasingly important to me for us writers who are in for the
long haul. I don't know if it was exactly a choice in my case—getting
rich as a flash-in-the-pan best selling author would no doubt still
tempt me—but the game has changed drastically since A Space Apart
was first published in 1979. I'm going for a longitudinal career—trying
to have all my books available in whatever formats exist.
Meanwhile, I have been reading between projects and my teaching work. I want to recommend first the deeply engrossing The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
by Rebecca Skloot. I read it as a borrowed library book on the Kindle
so the photographs weren't as enjoyable as in a big format hard copy
book, but the true story was plenty just as a narrative. It's about a
poor woman named Henrietta Lacks who dies young of a virulent cancer,
and whose cancer cells were grown and used, and continue to be grown and
used, for vast amounts of research. Many many lives have been saved,
but no permission to use the cells was ever given. It brings up endless
issues of medical racism and who owns our bodies.
It is also a real page turner, and, in addition, a glimpse
into the lives of people whose lives are damaged by poverty (and,
underlying that, slavery and racism). The family is also, however, full
of love and energy. Skloot builds relationships with them, and writes
about their reactions to her, and hers to them. She worked on this
research for a long time, and I wondered— as did the Lacks family—
exactly what Skloot was living on. Also, she does not, to my taste, make
enough of the role of syphilis in the story. It is likely that
syphilis suppressed Henrietta Lacks's immune system and made her cancer
even more invasive. And I also still don't get why you can do research
on cancer cells and get results that are true for normal cells.
My last caveat is that while the complex issue of profit from
sick people's tissue is central to the book, in the end Skloot more or
less says, Well, kids, that's capitalism. I could have used more
critique; I don't believe that the only thing that has advanced
medicine over the years has been the profit motive.
Still, this is meant to be a recommendation of a fascinating book.

I also read Carolina de Robertis's novel The Invisible Mountain so I could say I'd read all the books on the Politerature banner
, and I am so glad I did. Set Uruguay and Argentina, it is a three
generation story that begins with family legends that have overtones of Cien Años de Soledad. I
found that section least satisfying and liked much better the daughter
who is a working class poet who runs away and becomes a kept woman
(in Argentina) who parties with Peron and Evita. Her daughter becomes a
Tupamaro and spends some terrible long years, more than a decade, in
prison. The politics in this novel comes out of real lives naturally and
easily: in one branch of the family, everyone is a communist. An uncle
goes to fight for the revolution in Cuba. Che Guevera makes an
appearance as a young doctor. All of this is simply part of the milieu,
as is the suggestion that part of what finally ends the repression is
that Uruguay has some history of the practice of democratic
institutions, so even after many years of oppression and repression,
there are those who remember a different political system..

Last, I want to mention Ross King's wonderful The Judgment of Paris: The Revolutionary Decade That Gave the World Impressionism.
This is about the artists around Paris during the years before and
after the Paris Commune of 1871. One of the strengths of this book for
me is how it sketches in the background. I think I may finally have
begun to get a mental outline of the various numbered empires and
republics of France during the nineteenth century. The most powerful
part of the historical background, however, is how Paris, shaken by
losing the Franco-Prussian war, breaks out in the amazing and partly woman-led Commune, which is followed by terrible, bloody reprisals from the ruling class.
The heart of the book, of course, is the lives and work of the
artists. It focuses on Manet as the representative of the future and
Meissonier representing the past. It was a time and place when everyone
knew everyone else—Manet and Courbet and Monet and Degas and Cezanne
and the whole crew hung out in cafés together, along with the writer
Zola (see Germinal on the Politerature banner above)
and others. It was a time when the public was truly offended and
shocked by paintings in which people wore contemporary clothing (Manet's
Dejeuner sur l'herbe) or when a female nude stared back at the observer (Manet's Olympia above). A conventional painter of military triumphs like Meissonier got rich, but the future was with Manet and the others.

Short Reviews and Books Received

Hurry Down Sunshine by Michael Greenberg is the memoir
of the summer the author's teen-aged daughter became manic-depressive.
It was very gripping, very New York City story, reading like a novel,
with terrific momentum and wonderful city characters both on the
streets and in the hospitals. The middle class family lives in a grubby
apartment with broken air conditioners and a half-friendly
half-exploitative landlord. Then there is the brilliant, horrifying
mania of Sally, who, we learn from the afterword, has recovered, been
sick again, recovered again, and so on.
Greenberg wisely makes it the story of one heart-rending summer.

Fred Arment's thriller The Synthesis
is readable and fast-paced with the the main character repeatedly
being chased and whisked off and saved by unknown people. There are
conspiracies and conspiracies against the conspirators, with the main
plot element a financial plan to stop history. Intrerestingly, Arment's
nonfiction book released in 2012 is called The Elements of Peace: How Nonviolence Works.
This is a guide to nonviolent conflict resolution with case studies of
methods for maintaining or achieving peace. It would have been
interesting to see some nonviolent conflict resolution in the novel. But
maybe by definition that would not have been a thriller.

Smithereens by Susan Taylor Chelak is a dark novel
about a teenager who has been desultorily playing at suicide when a
mysterious girl from Kentucky arrives on the scene and moves in with
her family. The narrator's mother used to send money to the girl. There
are various mysteries, but mostly there is learning to be "bad" and a
dark climax. I especially liked the stranger, Frankie. I'm a sucker
for bad girl teenagers. It's a terrific capturing of a portentous,
semi-suicidal world reminiscent of Stephen King and some of Joyce Carol
Oates' work.

The mystery Black Water Rising is by Attica Locke, a
Hollywood script writer who was reportedly named for the 1971 Attica
rebellion. It's a fine book with a suffering sleuth hero, an
African-American former SNCC defendant-now-lawyer, trying to make a
living, getting sucked into dirty stuff. The plot turns on oil business
and and a longshoreman's union struggle. There are several interesting
racial subplots, and an interesting thread about the main character's
relationship with a former SDS'er now mayor of Houston. I don't find
this female SDS mayor particularly believable, but it's lots of fun. The
novel is told in the present tense, which works because of its movie
scenario chops, always telling us what we're seeing. It also works
because of many substantial flashbacks, especially between the main
character and the mayor. Locke does the man's point of view really
well, and I like it that his religious, lumpily pregnant wife turns out
to be good in a crisis, not just a convenient motivation for male
protectiveness. And I really like the grungy Houston background!

New from Presa Press two new collections by Eric Greinke: Traveling Music and Selected Poems: 1972 - 2005.

THE E-READER REPORT WITH JOHN BIRCH: New Website Rivals Amazon as Platform for Promoting New Books.

A new website, Goodreads.com,
allows devoted bookworms to share their favorite titles, rate books
they have read and to share lists of what they plan to read next, and
why. They can do this to every subscriber to the site, or to an
exclusive homemade list of people they want to reach. Goodreads.com
already has 15 million readers, and is adding members all the time.
According to the New York Times, it's "rivaling Amazon.com as a platform for promoting new books."
The site also plays host to roughly 20,000 online book clubs
for every preference, whether you're only interested in, say, biography,
novels about paranormal romance, or an individual author.
Believe it or not, there are more than 300 clubs devoted to Paranormal Romance alone!

DEBORAH GERSONY ON STEPHEN KING'S ON WRITING: A Memoir of the Craft

Deborah Gersony writes of Stephen King's Memoir/how-to-write
book: "I was most interested in how he approaches the work—does he plot
everything out carefully, start with a character study or a theme? What
was interesting and made sense to me was that he starts with a
difficult (or in his case demonic) situation that he happens to think of
at random, puts one or two characters (thinly drawn at first) into it
and then sees how they get out of it. As they emerge from their bad
situation, their personalities and back stories emerge for him as well.
He writes 2000 words a day. Research and the overall theme of the book
(what he is really trying to say in the end) comes last and is
important for the final revisions. He never seems to worry about
endings, just let's them happen, somehow. Also, amazingly, he generally
has an entire rough draft in 3 months! I haven't read many of his
books, but I thought 11/22/63 was skillfully done, if a little
loose and long. I think his down-to-basics approach is helpful for
someone like me who hasn't written a novel before."

MORE BOOKS FOR WRITERS

Deborah's note led me to think about some of my favorite books
about writing and literature. Some of them are practical guides, like
the one I wrote, others are about the basics of literature (the very
first book I ever read that taught me how literaure really works was
Ciardi's How Does a Poem Mean?). There are also a couple of
books recommended by students and friends that I haven't actually read
myself. Also see one writer's recommendation below of a genre novelist with lots to teach all kinds of writers.

Booth, Wayne C.— The Rhetoric of Fiction
Burroway, Janet— Writing Fiction: A Guide to Narrative Craft
Ciardi, John — How Does a Poem Mean?
King, Stephen —On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft
Anne Lamott — Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life
Paglia, Camille — Break, Blow Burn (How her favorite poems work)
Sexton, Adam — Master Class in Fiction Writing: Techniques from Austen, Hemingway, and other Greats
Silber, Joan — The Art of Time in Fiction: As Long a It Takes.
Willis, Meredith Sue — Ten Strategies to Write Your Novel
Wood, James— How Fiction Works
Zuckerman, Albert—Writing the Blockbuster Novel

VALERIE MARKWOOD RECOMMENDS A NOVELIST FOR NOVELISTS TO STUDY

"Lee Child [is] an excellent mystery writer [and] a good
example of great openings, structure, etc. He used to be in TV –
production & script writing. I haven't read all of his books, but
... below are the ones I've liked & didn't.

PHYLLIS MOORE ON MARGARET MILLET

Says Phyllis Moore: "I'm thinking [Margaret Millet] she grew
up in WV. At age 18 she wrote a poem 'Silicosis in Our Town' about
Hawk's Nest tunnel tragedy. She may have met or known Muriel Rukeyser
as I found the poem in a book about Rukeyser's work on Gauley Bridge.
Millet married Sender Garlin and they both were dubbed 'communist' as
they were for the working class, etc. He was Jewish.
"She has quite a nice record of labor-type protest poetry. Her
long poem 'Thine Alabaster Cities' is about the failure of the American
dream and racial turmoil in Mississippi related to two legal cases.
[One of her poems] reflects on the feelings the woman who accused
Emmitt Till might have had after his death. So far, I can't find much
about her except she and Sender moved to Boulder at retirement and he
died there in 1999. One of their three children, a son, is probably the
prominent Boulder attorney and activist, Alexander Garlin. His name
matches. Her other son's name is Victor and her daughter's name is
Emily. I'm trying to track down her WV roots through census records,
etc."

JOEL WEINBERGER on Going Clear: Scientology, Hollywood, and the Prison of Belief by Lawrence Wright.

Going Clear was a surprisingly good read, which is
surprising in its own right as I certainly went into the book expecting
to enjoy it. However, as my expectations were to leave the book angry as
I often do after reading about Scientology, I have instead found myself
with a much more complex set of emotions about the Church and the
religion, which I think is a testament to Wright's straight, (mostly)
objective approach.
The book covers several major topics regarding Scientology in
great detail: the history of the founder L. Ron Hubbard and his creation
of the Church, the modern workings of the Church under the current
(probably abusive) leader David Miscavige, and the story of Hollywood
writer and director Paul Haggis. My only real complaint about the book
is the Haggis portion of the story is effectively a rehash of the very
well written New Yorker piece by Wright, and it doesn't really add much
to the rest of the narritive he builds. But it certainly isn't bad, so
my complaint here isboretty limited.
While presenting the history of the Church, Wright plays it
straight the entire way. He does a good job avoiding editorializing,
although his options are pretty readily visiblevin his presentation. The
real key is that by presenting the facts straight, without common
commentary that is heard about Scientology and it's beliefs, Wright is
able to separate the "crazy" from the false and dangerous. And this is a
vital distinction that is not made nearly enough, because the "crazy"
portion is really no more crazy than any other religion, with
resurrection, parting of seas, or visits to heaven (and I say this as a
pretty religious fellow myself). Wright's presentation makes it clear
that the real problems, of they are true, lie in the Church, not the
religion per se (although the Church would greatly prefer if you didn't
separate the two).
Wright's book makes for a very well written introduction to
Scientology for outsiders. It requires no background in knowing what the
Church is about or who this Hubbard guy is, as many articles do. It's a
fascinating read even for someone like me who had a pretty strong
interest in the Church's actitives beforehand.

READ ONLINE AND ON THE AIR

Check out this wonderful blog by a young writer named Jessica Ong-- it's all about a failing parent and growing up Chinese-American and much, much more.

ReamyJansen had a good entry about book critics on Critical Mass, the National Book Critics Circle blog.

.... by Cathy J. Tashiro is just out in
paperback (Paradigm Publishers, 2013). It's about people of mixed race
focusing on on an older population. It's on Amazon Here and also
available directly from the publisher here.

Gradually the World: New and Selected Poems, 1982 - 2013 by Burt Kimmelman...

On Barcelona is inviting submissions: "Looking, as always, for work. No reading fees, no contest fees, no SASEs, no guidelines." Email halvard@gmail.com

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED:

ED DAVIS

Poetry Reading, March 22 I'll also be doing a poetry reading
on March 22 at 7:30 p.m. at Montage Cafe in Greenville, Ohio. Poetry,
food, and music--I'd love to see you there! New Poems Published Three
of my poems—"Aunt Hazel's Jewelry," "Communion," and "Footwashing"—have
been published at the online literary magazine Blue Ridge Literary
Prose and are available for viewing at blueridgeliteraryprose.wordpress.com.

Announcing the Tenth Annual 2013 Marsh Hawk Press Poetry Prize

Submission deadline: April 30, 2013 Submit a manuscript of
48-84* pages of original poetry in any style in English. The manuscript
must not have been published previously in book form, although
individual poems appearing in print or on the web are permitted. Entries
may consist of individual poems, a book-length poem, or any combination
of long or short poems. Collaborations are welcome. Click here to read more.
(Please note: Manuscripts longer than 84 pages may be considered, but
please contact us before submitting.) CHARLES BERNSTEIN to Judge 10th
Annual Contest

CHILDREN'S PICTURE BOOK FOR PASSOVER

The Passover Lamb by Linda Elovitz Marshall
Illustrated by Tatjana Mai-Wyss tells the story of a farm family that
happens to be Jewish. When a favorite sheep gives birth to triplets but
rejects one of the lambs, the family has to decide how to save the lamb–
AND make it to Grandma and Grandpa's for the Seder!
Based on a true story that happened to the author, it would be
an especially terrific seasonal gift for a child you know– but a lovely
story for anyone any time.

ABOUT AMAZON.COM

The largest unionized bookstore in America has a webstore at Powells Books. Some people prefer shopping online there to shopping at Amazon.com. An alternative way to reach Powell's site and support the union is via http://www.powellsunion.com. Prices are the same but 10% of your purchase will go to support the union benefit fund.

For a discussion of Amazon and organized labor and small presses, see the comments of Jonathan Greene and others in Issues #97 and #98 .

WHERE TO FIND BOOKS MENTIONED IN THIS NEWSLETTER

If a book discussed in this newsletter has no
source mentioned, don’t forget that you may be able to borrow it from
your public library as either a hard copy or a digital copy. You may
also buy or order from your local independent bookstore.

To buy books online, I often go first to Bookfinder or Alibris. Bookfinder tells you the book price WITH shipping and handling, so you can compare what you’re really going to have to pay.

A lot of people whose political instincts I
respect prefer the unionized bricks-and-mortar bookstore Powells (see
"About Amazon.com" above) that sells online at http://powellsbooks.com.